1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an active hood apparatus for a vehicle capable of decreasing impact applied to a pedestrian by instantaneously lifting a hood of the vehicle when the vehicle collides with the pedestrian.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a front portion of a vehicle is provided with an engine room, which is opened and closed by a hood. In the hood, which is a component serving to open and close the engine room and shield the engine room to block engine noise, both sides (left and right) of a rear end portion are coupled to an upper portion of the engine room via a hinge assembly, respectively, and are rotated around the hinge assembly to open and close the engine room.
However, it has been known that the hood is a part injuring a pedestrian when collision with the pedestrian occurs. Therefore, recently, in order to protect the pedestrian, an active hood system allowing a space capable of absorbing impact energy to the pedestrian at the time of collision with the pedestrian to be secured between the hood and the engine room has been applied.
The active hood system, which is a system lifting the hood in order to protect the pedestrian at the time of collision with the pedestrian, is a kind of safety apparatus for protecting the pedestrian, lifting the hood at the time of collision with the pedestrian to secure a space between the hood and the engine room to buffer impact of the pedestrian and prevent the pedestrian from colliding with electronic components of the engine room, thereby making it possible to decrease injury to the pedestrian.
Usually, in the active hood system, when a sensor mounted in a front bumper senses collision between the pedestrian and the front bumper at the time of the collision between the pedestrian and the front bumper, a controller operates an actuator depending on a signal sensed by the sensor to lift a rear end portion of the hood, thereby securing a buffering space between the hood and the engine room.
Particularly, an actuator according to the related art has used a scheme of lifting the hood using elastic force of a spring disposed therein. However, the mechanical type actuator as described above can not but have a large size and a heavy weight and be expensive due to components such as the spring, an internal latch, and the like. In addition, an operation speed has been restrictive due to a limitation of the elastic force of the spring and a malfunction has occurred due to a mechanical error.
The matters described as the related art have been provided only for assisting in the understanding for the background of the present invention and should not be considered as corresponding to the related art known to those skilled in the art.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.